The Indian authorities has invoked emergency legal guidelines to dam a BBC documentary analyzing the function of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, throughout riots within the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

Controversy has erupted in India over the primary episode of the two-part programme, India: The Modi Question, which tracked his rise by way of the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata social gathering and his appointment as chief minister of Gujarat.

The BBC additionally uncovered memos exhibiting that Modi’s conduct was criticised on the time by western diplomats and the British authorities.

Modi has been haunted for many years by allegations of complicity within the violence that happened throughout the Gujarat riots, which broke out after 59 Hindu pilgrims died on a prepare that had been set on hearth. The hearth was blamed on the state’s Muslim inhabitants.

Almost 1,000 Muslims died in violence throughout the state. Police had been accused of standing by and Modi of not doing sufficient to guard the minority neighborhood. He has denied accusations he did not cease the rioting and in 2013 a supreme courtroom panel stated there was inadequate proof to prosecute him.

The first episode of the documentary was broadcast within the UK on Tuesday final week. It has not aired in India however its content material – together with unauthorised video clips – have been circulating on social media. It prompted a vehement response from the Modi authorities, which has described the documentary as “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”.

“The bias and lack of objectivity and frankly continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible,” stated Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the international affairs ministry.

The documentary was additionally criticised in a joint assertion by greater than 300 former judges, bureaucrats and outstanding figures who accused the BBC of pushing a British imperialist agenda and “setting itself up as both judge and jury to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions”.

It was additionally raised within the UK parliament, the place the Labour MP Imran Hussain challenged the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, over the British authorities’s alleged data of Modi’s function throughout within the violence. “I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation,” responded Sunak.

Over the weekend, India’s ministry of knowledge and broadcasting issued instructions banning any clips from the episode being shared beneath laws launched in 2021 that enable for the “blocking of information in case of emergency”.

Kanchan Gupta, an adviser on the ministry, stated the federal government had ordered Twitter and YouTube to take down dozens of accounts which were airing clips of the Modi documentary on the idea that it was “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India” and “making unsubstantiated allegations”.

“Videos sharing BBC World hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage, disguised as ‘documentary’ on YouTube, and tweets sharing links to the BBC documentary have been blocked under India’s sovereign laws and rules,” Gupta stated in a tweet.

The BBC has stated in a press release that its documentary was “rigorously researched according to highest editorial standards”.

The determination to dam the documentary comes amid an more and more difficult atmosphere for media and freedom of the press beneath the Modi authorities, with essential journalists and media subjected to state and judicial harassment. Last 12 months, India slipped eight locations within the press freedom index to 150 out of 180 counties, its worst place on report.

The ban on the BBC documentary was met with outrage by opposition politicians, who accused the Modi authorities of censorship. Mahua Moitra, an MP for opposition social gathering Trinamool Congress, tweeted a hyperlink to a clip, writing: “Shame that the emperor and courtiers of the world’s largest democracy are so insecure. Sorry, haven’t been elected to represent world’s largest democracy to accept censorship.”

Asaduddin Owaisi, the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen social gathering, questioned why a documentary on Modi was blocked whereas one other upcoming movie venerating Gandhi’s killer, Nathuram Godse, was being launched unchallenged.